Thesis (PhD)-Open University. BLDSC no.DX195627.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-61). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-61). Also available on the Internet.

Web services transactions have some unique characteristics. A Web transaction may be composed of a number of individual Web services, executed across multiple loosely coupled autonomous systems. Each Web service may be executed on an independent system belonging to an independent provider. There raises the question whether Web transactions can and should be maintained as a single business unit in a similar way to how transactions are maintained in classical database systems. In classical database systems, the transaction management protocol and mechanism are constrained by the primary properties of atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability (ACID). These ACID properties are the cornerstone of maintaining data integrity in transaction management. However, ACID properties were meant for centralised systems and are better suited for short transactions. Unlike short transactions, Web services transactions may be long-running; they can take hours or even days depending on the application. Composing certain actions from loosely coupled distributed business processes across multiple distributed applications is one of the essentials of Web services transactions. The classic ACID model, which is tightly coupled, is therefore seen as too rigid to support all the requirements of the new Web transactions model. The research proposes a system that increases throughput while maintaining the consistency and correctness required by the particular applications that are using the model; the system is known as AuTrA (Adaptable user-defined Transaction relaxed Approach). AuTrA allows relaxation of each ACID property. The model is adaptable to meet different situations with different characteristics. For instance, in some cases it will be appropriate to relax atomicity, whereas in others it may be appropriate to relax isolation and atomicity while maintaining consistency. The research explores how transaction support for Web services can be customised to suit the needs of varying applications and result in improved service. The AuTrA prototype has been implemented. The experimental results show that the AuTrA application is able to support the basic features of Web services transaction management, allowing users to specify their correctness requirements, and it can increase throughput of transactions in models in a flexible and reliable manner. Additional facilities allow users to specify application-specific, non-ACID criteria that can increase throughput. Safeguards have also been implemented to prevent execution of inappropriate user specifications, such as relaxation of properties that may damage data integrity. AuTrA can be used as a tool by software developers who need to compose applications from independent Web services and who wish to build applications which result in improved performance while maintaining application-required consistency.

This study assesses the extent to which employees and users of public services can develop collaborative partnerships that promote person-centred services within institutions. Both citizen and worker participation are currently advocated as a means to develop public services, yet academically they have been studied within distinctive disciplines. Drawing together different theories of participation alongside the analysis of the concepts and practices of co-production, co-design and co-creation, this thesis establishes an analytic framework, termed co-participation to explore processes of collaboration between public service staff and users. This framework then informs the analysis of two case studies in local government and the health service where both staff and service users are involved together in developing person-centred services. This empirical work is supplemented by expert interviews with people who have worked in a number of different collaborative projects, alongside a realist synthesis of other similar cases. Using a critical realist approach and retroductive analysis this study explores how agents act within their institutional and policy contexts, assessing the extent to which their actions can instigate changes through institutionally designed participatory projects. It is found that the projects facilitated processes of reflexivity and intersubjectivity which promoted a sense of embedded collectivism within institutional contexts. The projects enabled agents to make many localised changes which positively impacted people’s lived experiences. Collectivities and networks were developed, yet these operated within dominant hierarchies and could be limited by their structural and cultural environments. Wider social inequalities and power relations had an impact upon these participatory processes, although participatory processes could also be adapted to enable greater access and more equal voice. These projects and practices are analysed within the wider context of the continuing neo-liberal reform of public services, exploring how the state shapes the structural and policy context which sets situational logics and conditions of possibility for these practices.

Design consultancy is a service that is given by professional designers to clients to respond to their design requirements. In Turkey, design consultancy services are given through design firms since the 1980s, mostly founded by the early graduates of industrial design. This thesis is carried to recognize the firms that give service in design consultancy sector, to identify the given services as design consultancy and to determine the conditions of design consultancy sector in Turkey through a survey made on the design consultancy firms in Turkey. A questionnaire is prepared to investigate the history of design consultancy firms, their profession fields, their client firms&rsquo / sector types, scope of services, the profession&rsquo / s advantages and disadvantages, the problems and opinions consultancy is carried out in Turkey. The survey also investigates the structure of design about the future of industrial design sector. This survey also inquires how design consultancy firms, given service types and sectors of client firms in detail. Twenty design consultancy firms responded to the questionnaire. The study indicates that, design consultancy service types by the firms are mostly product design, concept development, project drawing, project management, interface design and field tests.

Almost every company in the world deals with business processes on a daily basis. And business can derive signi cant bene t from taking a formal approach. This means, that the business process is formally described (for example using Business Process Modeling Notation 2.0) and implemented in some Business Process Engine (BPE). The aim of the thesis is to design a general API (BP Orchestration Web Services) that does not depend on BPE for business process monitoring and manipulation. The main problem of current APIs is that they are not uni ed, do not provide enough exibility and are too tied to the one particular BPE. This thesis includes general information about work ow, about BPMN and basic principles of REST architectural style. Based on this knowledge problesms were formally stated and as a solution BP Orchestration Web Services were designed and implemented. Web Services allow to instantiate a process from abstract de nitions, monitor the state of the process and manipulate with the process (including advanced manipulations such as exchanging a sub-process in the running instance for some another compatible sub- process). The RESTful API was designed in a way to minimize the client implementation and restrict client’s knowledge about internal details. As part of the thesis a connector to BonitaBPM was implemented and integration with BonitaBPM was done.

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This research investigates opportunities for Service Design in Education. The focus is on a particular type of change happening within education that of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) where Service Design has little presence and limited knowledge. This research has been carried out through grounded theory and contextualised in English institutions of primary education. As a result it identified Service Design as an approach to enable transformational change within educational institutions that seek to move towards ESD. To establish the basis for the research, a literature review has been carried out on Service Design, the vision of ESD and its application in the context of English schools. As a result, Service Design capability to re-design services at organisational level was linked to the gap in normative re-educative change processes towards ESD in English schools. The rest of the research sought to build on these findings. In-depth case studies with five primary schools and a cross-case analysis have been carried out to establish an understanding of ESD change at organisational level. It focused on elements relevant to normative re-educative change processes, which included social and personal norms and values residing within organisational systems. From the case studies, principles, concepts and processes were identified that enabled schools to engage with ESD at the deepest level. The knowledge derived from the case studies was further developed in order to relate the ESD phenomenon to Service Design. Service thinking and organisational change theory were applied to develop a Sustainable Education as a Service Model (SES MODEL) to understand ESD as a phenomenon in a service system. A SES Model was presented back to Service Design community. The sense-making of ESD was undertaken with seven service design practitioners by conducting semi-structured interviews during which they explored the SES Model. The outcome of the interviews showed the model to build service designer s capacity to engage with ESD, while the use of the model showed that designers could envision using it at a normative re-educative change level. The research shows that ESD is a new concept, which is relevant to Service Design. It therefore offers opportunities for further service design research and practical applications.

No description available.